"I'm quite doubtful if I shall be fit enough. But again I wonder if the monsoon will give us a chance. I don't want to get caught, but our three-day scheme from the Chang La will give the monsoon a good chance. We shall be going up again the day after tomorrow. Six days to the top from this camp!"

--from George Mallory's last letter to his wife prior to disappearing on Mt. Everest with his partner Andrew "Sandy" Irvine in 1924

"My face is in perfect agony. Have prepared two oxygen apparatus for our start tomorrow morning".

- Sandy Irvine's last diary entry

Mystery of Mallory and Irvine's Fate Google Earth Tour

Download the free Google Earth 5.0 program, and download my Mystery of Mallory an Irvine's Fate tour where I describe my theory of what happened to them on that fateful day. You can either download the file to your hard drive, and then open it in Google Earth, or open it with your web browser.

To run the tour, look in your Temporary Places folder at the bottom of the lefthand pane. Click on the plus (+) sign next to "Theory.kml", followed by clicking next to "Mallory & Irvine Theory Poston". If you can't see any routes, figures, contour lines, etc overlayed on the picture of the North Face of Everest - then make sure that you have also selected the check boxes, too. Finally, double click the little video camera icon labeled "M&I Tour" to run the presentation. Turn your speakers on too, since there is audio commentary.

When the presentation gets to the descent, you might have to click the check boxes next to "Position 1", "Position 2", etc in order to see the figures. For some reason they don't show up automatically sometimes, even though I recorded the tour that way. Right now it's a very rough presentation, but you'll get the gist of the theory. Here's a screenshot of what the opening display should look like. Enjoy!

Articles and Editorials

Harvey V. Lankford, MD, has written a paper documenting the origin of the term "Glacier Lassitude" as a diagnosis for the debilitating effect of altitude as experienced by members of the early British Everest expeditions.

My new theory about Mallory and Irvine's last climb, where I believe Odell's sighting was erroneous, and have them taking the Couloir route instead.

As for my employment, I work for Western Oregon University where I have been a Professor of Chemistry for the last 20 years. My research interests are in applications of Laser Raman Spectroscopy to such diverse fields as Nanotechnology, Analytical Chemistry, and even a bit of Achaeology through the study of rock art pigments found in the Colorado Plateau. You can access my academic webpage here.